Savvy Saturday: Exclusive excerpt from Storm Child

Storm Child, the sequel to K.M. Tolan's popular book, Tracks, is just as packed with adventure,
friendship, good guys, and baddies as it's predecessor. Take a look at this action packed excerpt, and then find out what happens when you buy the book!

~*~

He smoothly placed his hat over his heart and executed a courtly bow. “Marshal Leon Smith at your service, little lady. Folks just call me Marshal. Whom do I have the honor of addressing?”

He talked like nobility, or at least how she guessed a rail baron might sound. She would’ve forgotten the company he kept if it weren’t for the pearl-handled pistol shoved into a holster below the Marshal’s vest. Maybe he needed it to keep them under control. “I’m…R-Red,” she stammered.

“Isn’t that a fine name.” He swept the ends of his fingers along the bowler’s brim to fix the hat atop a high forehead. He inclined his head toward the other dour faces. “Don’t you mind my deputies, honey. We’re Pinkertons. The good guys.”

“They’re yegg,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can tell.”

“Firm hands on the tiller of justice,” he assured with a smile. Marshal pulled a yellow paper from inside his vest and unfolded it. “Rare to find one of your kind out by herself. That train over there yours, Red?”

She nodded. “Circus train. Tommy Tricks is the engine.” She gave Law Keeper a sidelong glance. “Tommy’s nicer than yours.”

“Well, this fellow we’re after likes circuses too. Heard he ran off with one.” The marshal spread the paper out before her. “This is a very bad man, sweetheart. A wanted killer. Look familiar to you?”

The breath squeezed from her. Red stared at the inked likeness, her jaw sagging. Big Mike.

The marshal regarded his deputies, his voice lowering as he said, “I’d say we found our man, gentlemen.”

Yelping, she raced back down the tracks as fast as she could. She broke into the caboose on a gust of wind, sending cards fluttering about the room. “Big Mike!” She gasped over Max’s surprised shout. “A man’s coming after you with a bunch of yegg. He’s right behind me. Got a pearly gun and snake boots.”

Surprisingly, the conductor knew whom she talked about. “Massasauga Smith,” Max spat. He rummaged in his desk. “ BM, you gotta get out of here. I’ve got some money in the drawer—”

“No,” the yegg interrupted, slamming a fist on the table hard enough to scatter the bottle caps they used as poker chips. “Ain’t gonna leave. Ain’t gonna join’ em likes they wanted Big Mike to do.”

Red whined in exasperation. “You didn’t really kill anyone, did you?”

The roustabout hitched up his suspenders and grinned at her. “Didn’t mean to. Big Mike just thumped too hard. Don’t want no badge.”

“Those men asked you to join them?”

“Wouldn’t really call it asking.” Max rubbed the back of his neck. “You can’t make a stand, Big Mike. Not against pistols. Not against the likes of Massasauga Smith.”

The large man pulled a red fire ax from hooks over the rear door. Dark smoky tendrils oozed from his eyes. “Big Mike gots Red.”

“What am I supposed to do?” she cried, following him out the front door.

He kicked at the ballast and swung the axe as if it were a marching baton. “You gonna let’ em take Big Mike away, Red?”

The question dragged itself over the red coals of hurtful memories. The seething black fog enveloping Big Mike’s body reached deep within her. Rage lifted Red into the sky in front of him. An unrelenting anger brought bright flashes to her eyes and transformed her hair in a crackling blue nimbus.

“They’re not taking you from me,” she thundered. Nobody’s going to do that to me again. Ever.

~Find out what happens next in Storm Child~

Storm Child is available on Amazon, Kobo, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Champagne Bookstore.

Book Review of Unbalanced by Linda Workman-Crider

Book Review: Unbalanced, written by Courtney Shepard

Review by: Linda Workman-Crider

Unbalanced is a story repeated throughout history between the powers of Dark and Light, a story of destiny, a story of elemental magic, and of being persecuted simply for being born different and surviving thus far. It is also a story of ill-fated love and the precarious balance of self-protection versus trust that plays out in the lives of all of us.

Some books defy a summary in paragraph form that does the storyline any justice. In some books, the character’s individual stories are so intertwined and interdependent, that excluded characters to define only two main characters also seems an injustice to the author’s work. Unbalanced is one these books. Perhaps the title and theme of this book have subliminally affected me, but I do not wish to portrait Asha and Clay as the main characters of this book simply based on their budding romance. I wish to shed some light on the other important characters, to show more of author Courtney Shepard’s efforts at presenting us with an engaging story, and to not leave readers in the dark about the entanglement of character storylines in this book that I hope they will soon dive into. Instead of forcing this review into my normal format, I hope my condensed reading notes on these main characters will prove much more informative.

Asha has the power of Fire. Father Sean is her handler. She’s a mercenary-type soldier with flaming red hair and black-colored eyes. Carries a rifle slung over her shoulder, a silenced pistol strapped to her thigh, and a gold dragon-hilted sword sheathed at her back. Raised in the San Francisco, lives now in Southern Columbia, the area of her last mission with Father Sean and his team. It was there she realized that she’d been given misinformation and had killed infants and children at a hospital compound. She escapes. She spends her time now trying to help the local communities, killing those who threaten them, trying to make amends for her own wrong-doing.

Clay is a soldier for The Order, following the orders of Master Heath and Master Miles. Green-eyed, tall, brown-haired, handsome. Has been dreaming of Asha since his childhood. His shock at discovering that she is a real person causes him to veer from his mission of targeting and killing her on sight. Instead, he poses as a doctor from Doctors without Borders delivering supplies and infiltrates the camp. Is he Asha’s star-crossed love interest and/or her assassin? Even he doesn’t seem to know.

Ivy has the power of Earth. Father Bennett is her handler. She’s an auburn-haired, green-eyed veterinarian from Canada. Comes home to discover Father Bennett assassinated in her living room and the assassin still waiting for her. Later, she finds a note left in her vest from Father Bennett telling her to find her sisters, Asha, Mere, and Avia, and to also find Master Miles. These are the only people she should trust. Not only coping with the shock of Father Bennett’s unfortunate death, she is only now discovering that the she has sisters and has no idea who Master Miles is.

Mere has the power of Water. Father Austin is her handler. She’s a surfing instructor in Australia. Wavy black hair, light blue eyes. Almost kills a child while basking in the thrill of her created wave. Flees the beach to head home, happy to find Father Austin there making tea, hoping he will relieve her of her self-recriminating thoughts. The arrival of assassins halts the conversation. Father Austin stalls them with a pistol grabbed from a kitchen drawer, telling Mere to flee and find her sisters. Sisters she didn’t know, until that moment, existed.

Avia has the power of Air. Father James is her handler. She’s a renowned flutist residing in Hong Kong. White hair, light grey eyes. Finds her limo driver assassinated in the back alley of her latest performance. Flees to Switzerland and her secluded cabin in the Alps. It is at this location that all four sisters are united while engaged in a battle with Clay and the Order. Will they all survive? Will Clay choose obedient duty or be ruled by his own desire?

In a majority of the story’s timeline, the main characters are all in their mid-twenties. Asha, as a mercenary, was always prepared for battle, and her sisters had all been prepared by their priests for the day they all knew would come, when they would have to flee to preserve their lives. They understood that they would be hunted for their powers, but it seems they were never told by whom or for what purpose. Even the fact that they had sisters was kept from them. Which side are the priests really on? Ivy’s priest, Father Bennett, names Master Miles as one of the few people she can trust, but Master Miles is not only one of the highest-ranking members of the Order, he is also the first-born son of the Grand Master of the Order.

Unbalanced is opening book to a series by the same title. It is fast-paced and packed full of interesting turns of events that keep the reader engaged. Courtney Shepard is a master of description in matters of both love and battle. Both types of actions scenes are vividly written while, at the same time, not being overly done. While I was at first a little disappointed with the name, hair color, and eye color matching to the corresponding element, thinking these choices lacked imagination, I changed my mind after realizing that I would probably be more upset if there were no outwardly visible connections. For those who usually avoid books written in a series due to the high rate of abrupt unsatisfactory endings, this book stands well and ends well on its own. There are actually more characters than I introduced here, leaving Shepard with many options for continued writing. I would recommend this book and I would definitely be interested in reading the next book in this series.

Unbalanced is available on Amazon, Kobo, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Champagne Bookstore.

Blood Under the Midnight Sun Excerpt

Blood Under The Midnight Sun

By Steven Ure

Mystery/Thriller/Action-Adventure

$4.99

Amazon: http://goo.gl/9iDc5a

Kobo: https://goo.gl/DUuoRx

 

When Julie’s twin brothers are declared MIA in Nazi-occupied Norway, Julie risks everything and heads over there from Scotland to find them.

 

Excerpt

“We have to move, girl,” her father said calmly. There was not a trace of fear in his eyes, and she wondered how that could be. “Hurry now,”he said in a hushed tone, and led Julie away from all the lights.

 

Together, they weaved through the forest, ducking under branches and jumping over bushes, but it never felt like they were going fast enough. The lights were always behind them. They looked to Julie like they might be catching up. Julie’s father looked back and his eyes went wide. The fear was getting to him and it was then Julie started to get really scared.

 

“Hurry, hurry!” he muttered and ran. They were making a terribly loud noise running, as twigs and leaves broke and crumpled underneath their feet, but when Julie looked back, the lights seemed to be getting farther away.

 

They had been running for fifteen minutes and Julie was winded and had to rest. She sat down on a rotten log covered with moss and tried to catch her breath.

 

“They won’t stop looking,” her father said, facing away from her, like he was talking to himself rather than Julie. “They saw the crash, and they can’t assume the people inside died with it. No, they’re not like that. They’re not going to stop looking. Not until they found us, that is.” He wasn’t even breathing hard, even after the hard run.

 

“What are we going to do?” Julie asked.

He turned to face her. His eyes darted back and forth and looked down to the ground. Julie could tell he was thinking about doing something dangerous.

 

“What?” she said. “What are you going to do?”

 

“Shhh, girl,” he whispered, and put his finger to his lips. “Or they’re going to hear us.”

 

“What are you going to do?” she said, this time in a whisper.

 

He sighed. “I have to draw them away. If the maps Mr. Ward lent me are correct, then there should be a large farm about a mile that way.” He pointed uphill and Julie followed where his finger pointed. It looked so desolate and lonely there. “Just follow the North Star—see there? And you’ll find it in no time. There are a lot of outbuildings to hide in at the farm and Ward says the owners are resistance, and I believe him. Hide in one of the outbuildings and wait till morning.”

 

“And where will you go?” she asked.

 

He unholstered a pistol. “I have to distract them and throw them off your trail.” He gulped and stared in Julie’s eyes. “You have to run now, girl. Run as fast as you can, and don’t look back.”

 

Julie hesitated and looked back at her father one last time.

 

“Go on now, girl. I told you not to look back.”

 

Julie turned tail and ran. She didn’t dare look back this time. She followed the North Star, going at a full sprint. When she couldn’t run anymore it only urged her to go even faster. Her nose was running, her heart beating so fast, and her legs ached beyond belief, but she carried on. She only stopped when she spotted the farm and all of its outbuildings. There was a brown barn some hundred yards away that looked to be deserted. She hobbled over to it, too tired to walk upright.

 

The barn had a bed of straw and some bags of oats piled up in the corner. There was a single pen in the corner with some animals inside. She sat down on one of the oat bags and waited for her father to return. She didn’t wait long before collapsing into a bed of straw. The straw poked into her face, but she was too tired to care and soon fell asleep.

 

Julie was stirred by the creaking of the barn door. She didn’t know how long she had slept, but it was still dark out, so it mustn’t have been for long. The barn door was wide open and a cold draft swept into the barn. A rustling came from the front of the barn, but it was too dark for her to see who was making it. She didn’t dare whisper to find out. Then again, she didn’t have to.

 

“Are you here, girl?” her father called out from the darkness. His voice was hoarse and thin, but she still recognized it.

 

“Yes,” Julie cried. “Yes, I am.” Her father staggered over to her and slumped down on one of the oat bags. He held his hands tight to his stomach and his back bent over almost to his knees.

 

“Are you hurt?” It was still too dark to see him completely. She couldn’t see what condition he was in. All she could see was his silhouette.

 

“I’m fine,” he groaned. “You should get some sleep. It’ll be morning soon.”

 

“I can’t. I am too excited—and scared.”

 

“Then that’s the best time to get some sleep. Please, go to sleep and we’ll speak in the morning.”

 

“Okay then,” she replied. She lay back down in the straw and used an oat bag for a pillow.

 

She heard her father wheezing as she tried to get to sleep. His breath came out in choking rasps and when he inhaled, he made this soft squeal. Despite her concern for her father, Julie fell asleep. It had been a long and tiring day after all. She was soon awoken by the morning sun peeking through the barn windows.

 

Her eyes fluttered open and she strained to get to her feet. The straw bed hadn’t been very comfortable and made her back stiff. She looked around the barn with no sign of her father. He couldn’t have gone missing again, she thought, frustrated. Then she spotted him in the opposite corner of the barn. He was behind a stack of square hay bales, only his drooping head was visible at the top. His eyes were closed, and he had dried saliva around his lips. He didn’t look...

 

“Father!” She raced over to him.

 

When she turned the corner around the bales, she saw he was dead. His body sat on a bale, his back leaned lazily against another, and his head hung unnaturally to the right. Dried blood stained the bottom of his blue shirt and ran down his trousers. His hands were still there by his stomach, trying to hold in the blood—even in death. But what troubled Julie the most was his eyes. They were still wide open. His brilliant blue eyes had turned gray and not a trace of light seemed to reflect from its dim surface.